Training is Difficult
by Yauboio
Summary: "I'd always wanted to be a trainer and with a name like Lo you'd expect me to, but I always thought it'd be easy and it wasn't. This is my life story and it shows you how I would become the trainer I am now and all the 'hi's and Lo's' I went through." The story of a trainer where life did not go as expected.
1. Preparation

My parents always told me training was difficult but no matter how much they tried to dissuade me training was going to be my life, I knew that from a very young age and it has always been my dream. As you probably know, most parents at their child's tenth birthday buy them a Pokémon if they wish to be a trainer. This is either chosen by the trainer and bought by the parents or they get a choice of the three most basic Pokémon in the region for a slightly lower fee, such as the Unova choice (my home region) consists of Tepig, Snivy and Oshawott, but me being as I was I was not going to choose from those 3. My name is Logan, most call me Lo, and I was to be a champion or so I wished.

-.-

"Hey, Lo!" Jayson called to me as I walked back from school, begging for attention like he always does.

"Yeah, I know, you have a Pokémon, blah blah..." This had gotten out of hand; he had got his Pokémon 3 days ago and was still on about it. It wasn't even that special and was incredibly boring. A Wurmple, not a cool Pokémon like a dragon, or a cute Pokémon like an Eevee, just a Wurmple and he'd asked for it too. Who wanted a Wurmple as their starter, I sighed as I thought _at least it's better than no Pokémon at all_.

"No, it's not that," he made it sound like no one would expect him to be talking about that, "it evolved! This is why I got a bug Pokémon, because it evolves so soon and then gets more and more powerful!"

"Stop getting so worked up, what Pokémon is it now?"

I was actually quite curious; I thought it must be awesome for him to have wanted a Wurmple. They're rare in our region and so I didn't know much about it. He fiddled with his rucksack until he pulled out a Pokéball; he then fumbled with the red and white ball until it opened with a flash and out came a white, spiky cocoon.

"That's not evolving, that's getting ready to evolve."

"No this is a whole different Pokémon, a..." He fumbled with his rucksack to get out his Pokédex.

_He doesn't even know his own Pokémon._

"...a Silcoon, eventually it will evolve into a..."He typed away on the Pokédex and then mumbled something off into the distance.

"What does it evolve into then?" I pushed for an answer.

"...a Beautifly." He moaned. This obviously was not what he expected, it made me laugh much to his despair and after I calmed down I asked him for the Pokédex.

Scrolling down its moves and stats I noticed something odd.

"It only evolves at level 10?"

"Yeah..."

"Well that's pretty strong for a level 10 Pokémon. Most things aren't even considering evolution at that level." This made him smile and he walked off content with his low level bug.

Whenever I get home I'm straight to choosing starters revising work and generally work on my Pokémon training skills but I knew what starters I wanted and with only two weeks to go I needed to tell my parents.

-.-

"Now to show my parents the chosen Pokémon."

It was 2 weeks from my birthday and I couldn't explain how excited I was by the prospect of getting a Pokémon. I had whittled down my list of 20 into 5 main choices, I'd spent hours working on this list:

A Riolu, I liked Riolus because they evolved into Lucarios and they were amazing. They were definitely my favourite Pokémon and a fighting type which is my favourite Pokémon type.

A dragon of any kind at its lowest part of the evolutionary chain (I don't include Swablu, Trapinch or Horsea here because they're not dragons at this point), Dratini, Gible, Bagon, Axew and Deino are what I wrote down but there probably are some other dragons out there somewhere.

A Togetic, again I liked this one's evolution but I wasn't going to start out with a Togepi considering I was going to be ruthlessly mocked if that was my starter, especially by Jayson considering I teased him about his Wurmple.

A Charmander, rare but awesome! Maybe a bit dangerous but if Kanto starters could have it so could I.

And finally a Meditite, another fighting type like Riolu but with a psychic twist it could also talk to me with thoughts but the first thing I was going to buy with my money (after essentials) was a Pokémon translator so to be honest this didn't matter that much.

Okay so it was more than 5 but it gave my parents enough choice! I walked downstairs to my parents, gave them my list, sat down and waited. They discussed it in hushed tones and they looked up at me after they had finished speaking, obviously confused.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Dad spoke with a deep and shaky voice but it was soothing most of the time.

I scuttled off back upstairs to the computer and revised my Pokémon strategies, types and such making sure I was thoroughly ready for any Pokémon. I also studied the Unova map also and started to plan my route through all 8 badges and up into the elite four. I lived on the east side of Unova in a town called Lentimas town. It is a small dusty town that grew up in the past year but has since grown an airport that is very confusing. I moved here 6 months ago and it is now pretty big with a nice community but it is living in the shadow of a mountain called Reversal Mountain. The gyms can be completed in any order but there is a difficulty order:

Aspertia City – Normal Type Gym

Virbank City – Poison Type Gym

Castelia City – Bug Type Gym

Nimbasa City – Electric Type Gym

Driftveil City – Ground Type Gym

Mistralton City – Flying Type Gym

Opelucid City – Dragon Type Gym

Humilau City – Water Type Gym

It was a good idea to do these in this order and so I would do as close to that as possible, I would take a trip to Mistralton City by plane and then head south to Castelia. This would be the first gym I face, only the third in difficulty and would be good fun. I would then travel across the sea to Virbank to have my second in Aspertia with Virbank being my third because I'd have to travel back there to get to Castelia so I did the easier gym first. I then intended to head back to Castelia and continue through the gyms in order whilst heading back to my home town for a visit after the Mistralton City gym. This was how well planned but I knew that it would not go to plan because it never did for anybody ever in the gym challenge. I'd obviously then go to the elite four etc but it was too obvious to write down. And so I was almost ready and I couldn't be more excited for this, I'd finally be a trainer!


	2. Pokemon and To-Do Lists

It was my birthday, my parents had given me no clues about my Pokémon except for the fact that I was getting one (I had gotten curious to whether they had actually gotten a Pokémon given the lack of hints and straight up asked them much to their surprise). I had woken up at some stupidly early time and rushed downstairs to meet my parents but sadly they weren't awake. So I sat down on the sofa and realised how tired I had gotten and I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up around seven in the morning and deterred myself from sleep again after a measly but oddly frightening dream about a Dusknoir. I thought it must mean something (I thought all dreams meant something) but I didn't know what and then I almost shouted for joy when I remembered it was my birthday and I was getting a Pokémon, and going on a journey, and really too excited to make much sense at all – You can tell how much I was excited by this that even when recalling it I'm getting flustered. I heard footsteps, I went silent as I was still slightly shaken from the dream and thought it was the Dusknoir... I then laughed when I remembered Dusknoir have no legs or feet at all. So as expected it was not the Dusknoir but in fact it was my parents carrying a plastic wrapped Pokéball. It was plastic wrapped so I didn't know what Pokémon it was, you can feel the Pokémon's type and could hear its speech if you really listened whilst holding it in your hands. They wanted me to first see it when I threw it and released it.

"Are you ready for your present Lo?" Even my mother called me that now, my dad is still reluctant to call me it but he's used to everyone else calling me Lo so he doesn't mind.

"..." I tried to reply but was too excited and I think they knew the answer so it didn't really matter.

My mum passed me the Pokéball and I pressed the button on the front, time went slowly as the white light burst around a humanoid figure. I saw the blue colouring of its fur first and ran towards it from instinct and almost jumped on to it but luckily stopped just in time.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I was beaming from ear to ear and I couldn't believe my luck or how amazing my parents were.

"It's a little shy but it has the dream world ability like you wanted." My father was happy to see my face explode with happiness; it was odd because I thought I couldn't get any happier.

"Hi Riolu, I'm Lo. I'm going to be your trainer from now onwards." I spoke quietly so as not to frighten... oh I didn't know its gender. "Mum, is it a boy or a girl?"

"A girl, is that alright?"

"Yeah of course, I was just wondering." I really didn't care at all I think it was even better that it was a girl because they were saner than guys like me.

I opened my arms and the Riolu tip toed towards me, obviously very cautious of me and my massively muscular and amazing body (it may have been for other reasons but this is the only thing I could think of).

"Now what should I call you?"

She had now reached me and stepped into a hug. It didn't take long to think of a name as it fitted with her species name perfectly.

"Lucy. I'll call you Lucy." I smiled as she smiled back.

I had my first Pokémon, and it already liked me, this must be what being in heaven felt like.

-.-

The next day I walked back into school with my Pokémon in my bag. I could've stayed at home now I had one but I needed a partner for my journey and I knew who I wanted it to be. If I had to wait for her tenth birthday, so be it; we had been friends for years now and so to not ask her to come with me would be insulting.

"Hey Beth," I smiled at her as she walked past and I turned to talk to her.

"Hey, what's up?" I waited a second and then she squealed and tried to say. "What Pokémon is it?"

I knew she'd remember eventually.

"A Riolu, she's called Lucy." I promptly pulled my bag off my shoulders and released my Pokémon much to both Beth's delight and Lucy's surprise.

"Aww, she's so cute." She was almost bouncing now; she seemed more excited than I was.

"Beth..." She had started bouncing and I was worried for Lucy's safety.

"Yes..."

"Calm down."

"Oh..."

She stopped jumping up and down and held out her hand and the shy Riolu nuzzled into it a little already accustomed to Beth which was good seeing as I was travelling with her. I then lowered my arm and the acrobatic Riolu climbed up onto my shoulder causing Bethan to squeal again, I'm not sure whether it was surprise or cuteness but probably a bit of both. Then I remembered about asking her to come along on the journey.

"Beth, can you come on my journey with me when you get your Pokémon?" I sounded nervous and yet I'd never sounded nervous around her before, it was confusing to say the least.

"Yeah of course, why wouldn't I be?" I sighed, relieved at this.

"Don't worry I was just a little worried and a little paranoid." I'm like that sometimes.

-.-

Okay so her birthday's in a couple of weeks time, so I want to do some training before then but other than that I'll just wait and prepare. I also needed to get some Pokéballs, get a Pokédex, get a translator for Lucy, and obviously have my first battle. So I wrote a to-do list. I stared at it intently; I think that I was trying to get them done in my mind without moving (I was very comfortable), it wasn't working.

_That's quite a lot to do in a couple of weeks, I'd better get started._

So off I went with my head held high, proud of my Pokémon, proud of my preparation and very proud of my to-do list that had tick boxes and everything, to the Pokémon centre where they would give you your starter Pokémon training kit which would tick off two of the things on my to do list.

"There you go," Nurse Joy handed me the Pokédex and five Pokéballs for the journey."When are you leaving?"

"Oh, just after Beth's birthday." I got a confused look."Oh, my friend from school, it'll be her tenth in about two weeks and so we'll be travelling together."

"That'll be fun," I turned to walk out of the centre and Nurse Joy called. "We hope to see you again!"

"Okay..." I mumbled feeling rude not to answer.

I was always confused why they said that, all the trainers at school said they did but I didn't believe it because to me it just sounded as though they were wishing us pain.

_Anything to get money I guess._

I don't know why but I shrugged my shoulders as I thought this, which got me some very weird looks.

-.-

"Time to find out all about you, Lucy."

I had walked a little way down the street before I decided to let her out onto the path. She bounced happily as the beam of light left her standing there. I lifted the Pokédex up and slid it open, it recognised Lucy immediately.

"Riolu, the Emanation Pokémon."

_ Hooray Pokédex talk, I wonder if you can change the voice._

"Riolu uses the shapes of auras, which change according to emotion, to communicate with others."

_Awesome._

"Okay so you are Level 5 and you have the moves Foresight, Quick Attack and Endure. That's alright I guess. Let's go find a Pokémon battle!"

"Lu!" Happily, I think, I wasn't very good with emotions of Pokémon then.

It was not long after that that we stumbled upon Jayson and his Silcoon training on wild Pokémon. He'd stopped going to school after he caught his Pokémon so he hadn't seen Lucy yet.

"..." He was shocked to see that I had a Riolu as a starter, and I think a bit jealous also.

"Jayson, meet Lucy, she's my starter Pokémon and we are challenging you to a battle as soon as you're ready." He still stood in shock at this and the challenge didn't help matters whatsoever.

"O-Okay." He stumbled on his words, he seemed very nervous.

"Are you ready or do you need to heal up?"

"I g-guess I'm ready."

"Okay, come on, we'll go to the battle area."

The battle area is a whole bunch of battling arenas of different shapes and sizes, with water ones and rocky ones it was a battler's dream and they had one in every city! It was not long until we arrived and Jayson had finally got over the shock of finding me with a Pokémon. This would be three out of five of my to-do list and I was going to give it my all, I was surprised at how quickly the to-do list went down but the last one was open-ended so it didn't really matter how quickly I got the others done. Okay first battle, this is going to be tough.


	3. A First Time for Everything

He sent out his Silcoon as I'd expect from a trainer with only one Pokémon and took up some sort of battle stance, he'd obviously been watching too many Pokémon movies. I sent out Lucy right in front of me so I could talk to her, she hadn't battled before (like me) so I wanted to let her know what was happening.

"Okay Lucy, this is going to be our first battle. You probably know what battling is but our aim is to knock his Pokémon unconscious using your moves. Are you going to be okay with that?"

"Lu." She replied with a nod of her head.

The referee raised his arms and Lucy jumped into position, she obviously knew more than I expected.

"The battle will be one versus one. The match is won when all of one team's Pokémon are unable to battle."

I nodded in agreement and after a second, Jayson did also. I was always the smarter one about battles but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Begin." The referee shouted, it made me jump and I almost lost my balance but Jayson didn't seem to want to say the first move so it didn't matter too much.

"Okay Lucy, Quick Attack."

Offence would be best seeing as the Silcoon didn't seem to be able to hurt a fly. The attack hit and the bug slid backwards slightly, it seemed to be damaged. He promptly replied with a String Shot ensnaring Lucy enough to slow her down but not doing much else.

There was a period of silence just long enough to notice before I called for another Quick Attack. Although Lucy was hindered it did not seem to make her slower than the Silcoon and the Quick Attack hit hard again. After another command the Silcoon hardened with a metallic sheen and then sent off a stream of spikes that glowed purple. Riolu was damaged but not seriously, This was going well but Lucy was more damaged than I'd have liked and something was damaging her over time, I wasn't going to lose at this rate but it would be a long stay at the Pokémon centre for Lucy.

The next moves were called and after another Quick Attack Lucy was again snared in string. This time, however, she was moving much slower. I called for another Quick Attack but thanks to the string the bug was able to dodge. Lucy jumped back and the two Pokémon stared at each other, neither moving but Lucy was still being damaged. And then an idea sprung to mind. I wasn't sure what to do.

_If I wait too long Lucy would be hurt but if I attacked the Silcoon would just dodge and Lucy would still be damaged by whatever that thing was._

And then an idea came to mind.

"Lucy, Foresight."

I thought for a while nothing happened but every move the Silcoon made Lucy could track with a preëmptive turn of her head, I smiled to myself and ordered for what I hoped to be the last Quick Attack. The Silcoon made an attempt to move out-of-the-way but Lucy already knew where it would be going and swung herself into the attack. It did much more damage than I expected and the Silcoon fell backwards unconscious and more than slightly bruised.

"Silcoon is unable to battle, Riolu and Logan win."

I jumped for joy and Lucy jumped with me but couldn't hold her weight as she landed. She fell to her knee and I returned her.

"Why is she still taking damage?" I called at Jayson a little worried for her health.

"Poison Sting,"

I didn't need to hear more; I turned and sprinted to the Pokémon centre. Nurse Joy took Lucy and went into one of the 'healing rooms'. She returned and told me that Lucy would be done in an hour or two. Not one to waste time I decided to tick off the next thing on my to-do list.

-.-

The hardware store was not long down the road and I reached there in less than ten minutes. It was large and consisted mainly of rows and rows of electronics mainly suited to advanced trainers. My parents had given me a training budget to live on until my journey and I knew exactly what I wanted with most of it. A man walked up to me and started talking, he had short dark hair and was wearing a suit that put him completely out of place in a hardware store.

"So, what will we be getting for the little trainer?" His voice was patronising and I glared at him, he seemed to think I wasn't alone.

"A translator,"

"Oh, of course, come with me." He was slightly shocked at my slightly aggressive tone.

He wandered off and I followed. The shelves were packed to the brim with the newest of technology, all of it at extortionate prices. This worried me because I had little money but he assured me he had just the thing for younger trainers. We entered a huge warehouse named translators and I stopped suddenly. This place was huge, it consisted of aisle after aisle of collars and headphones all made for a trainer's enjoyment. I couldn't understand why it would be so huge. As though reading my mind the man turned to me and said,

"We have translators for every Pokémon and nature, or you can have one for you that would translate every Pokémon in existence, that we know about of course."

"I think I want one for my Riolu not an all round one." I decided on this because the all in one translators were very expensive and I only needed one for my Riolu at the minute, I also thought it would be cheaper to get six translators for a whole team than one translator for every Pokémon in the world.

"Do you have her with you?"

"No, she's at the Pokémon centre."

"Oh, that's fine. However you cannot take it away without her because she will need fitting," He was disappointed at her not being here, he obviously needed to sell something, "but you can choose her model and preorder it."

I nodded at him and he walked off again. I looked around in awe at the wide range and then jumped when I noticed I was alone.

"Over here," The man called at me from an aisle of sorts with 'P-S' written at the end, "this should do nicely."

He held up a small collar like model that was blue and black in colour. He held it out to me and I took it. It felt exactly like Lucy's fur.

"How much?"


	4. Good Times

I returned later in the day with Lucy and purchased the translator with the rest of my money, she was very nervous and hardly spoke at first but she was starting to loosen up. We had chosen the voice that she thought suited her best and after only hearing her a couple of times the voice already fit in my head as her voice. The actual translator was almost invisible and was resistant to everything (that's what I decided after getting bored of him listing all of the things it resisted) and so it is perfect for a battling Pokémon.

"We need to get some training done!" This gave Lucy a bit of a shock but she soon recovered.

"_Okay,"_ She expected me to say more, her own voice made her jump and not for the first time; it was a soft feminine voice that fitted her bouncy nature perfectly but I think she preferred her normal voice without translation.

I slid out my Pokédex as we headed onto the nearest route and it pleasantly surprised me when it did not start shouting about Riolu when I pointed it at her.

"Oh, you gained a level during our last battle."

She didn't seem too interested and ran off to chase a Beautifly. I then saw Jayson run past shouting something about how it evolved, I presumed it was the Silcoon and the into was the Beautifly. I chased after him, Lucy and the Beautifly shouting a reply.

_Okay, no training yet then._

I was annoyed now that I had been a trainer for three days and I had only had one battle whereas in five hours Jayson had evolved his own Pokémon for the second time but Lucy seemed happy so that's all that really mattered to me at the time and there was a lot more time to train if I wanted to.

After a couple of minutes of running I caught up with the group and sat down, it was bright and sunny and was just outside of the desert by a man-made forest, however it seemed to house many Pokémon and the trees didn't look too well placed, in fact it looked just like a normal forest the only clue giving away that it was a fake was the desert behind us. Lucy was still chasing the Beautifly but they were just running in circles so we sat and watched them run around making sure they didn't go too far and being very motherly over our Pokémon.

"I actually quite like the Beautifly." It surprised me that Jayson liked it.

"Yeah it's definitely pretty. How is it coping with two evolutions so quickly?" I had thought evolutions confused Pokémon but Beautifly seemed alright.

"Oh, alright but I think she's a little confused by it all but not much." I was right.

We sat in silence on the grass not noticing as time passed, the grass was green and the forest was lush, the forest was just close enough that we could faintly hear the tree leaves rustling in the wind. The day was cool and breezy and we were near a small hill that looked over the forest.

"_Lo!"_ Lucy called from the top of the hill.

"What?" I mumbled hoping she could hear me, not very interested from removing myself from the grass.

"_Lo!" She hadn't heard me._

"Yes?" I said it a bit louder.

"_Lo!_" She still hadn't heard me.

"What?!" I shouted this time

"_Come here!"_ She was quite quiet now and was obviously more used to her voice.

I got up and wandered towards where she was. She was standing on the top of a small hill and was looking over a huge forest teeming with Pokémon.

"_Are we going there?"_

"Do you want to?"

_"Yeah," _She seemed as though she was being absorbed into the forest.

A bird called in the forest below and it caused a huge amount of other bird noises to tweet off in the distance but it wasn't noisy. It was unusual for a place like this to be near a desert town like Lentimas but for the past two years they had been developing the area to be a Pokémon heaven and was one of the reasons that Lentimas Town is now pretty popular. It had opened a month or two ago but I hadn't been able to go because I didn't have a Pokémon.

"We'll make a trip of it one day,_" _Lucy squealed reminding me of Bethan and luckily it was happiness.

Jayson wondered up onto the hill and his Beautifly fluttered towards, finally deciding to rest on his shoulder. He smiled, I smiled, our Pokémon smiled and all in all the world seemed to smile.

_Training should always be this happy_.

-.-

"Okay team," Lucy nodded tiredly, "we are going to train today."

Lucy cheered half-heartedly and we walked out of the house together. The birds were still tweeting from sunrise, it was very early. I had decided that we'd wake up early, before school, and get some battles in to make up for the lack of training the day before.

We spent hours on end fighting off low-level Pokémon in the nearby area and slowly levelled up Lucy, by the time we had to head back she had reached level nine and had started using a new move. It made her really slow but then countered the opponents move for more damage but it didn't work if they used a special move like Flamethrower. When I 'Pokédexed' her it was called Counter, for obvious reasons, and she was getting very good at using it which was good. She could also use Endure at the right time so that she would always survive the hit and hit back with more damage than they had done to her which meant that she could often take out physical opponents pretty quickly. I named this combo 'Final Chance' so I didn't have to say Endure then Counter all of the time.

On the way to school Lucy started practicing her kicks and punches much to the kids' surprise and occasional pain. After she injured her third person I decided to put her back in her Pokéball. I'm not I'd let her out as often as she is out at the minute if she was going to keep doing that. By the end of the day she had got the message that attacking people was bad even if they were boys (her only excuse) which always made Beth laugh, I did remind her I was a boy and her reply was that I wasn't 'boyish' enough which put Beth in hysterics and she didn't stop laughing for a good five minutes. Beth told me that she'd find her interest in men soon enough but I think that might've worried me just as much as her attacking every man we meet.

-.-

It was Beth's birthday and her time to get a Pokémon. I had no idea what she was getting, I think she didn't tell me as revenge for me not telling her, and so I was pretty excited but not quite as much as Bethan. I was over at her house before school to introduce Lucy to her new friend and training partner and we were waiting for her parents to wake up. I was often at her house and so they were like my second family.

"Okay Beth, it's time."

She finished tying her dark blonde hair back into a pony tail and stood up turning suddenly. Her mother was carrying the Pokéball carefully but it was not plastic wrapped. She took a step towards them and held out her hands, they gave the ball to Beth as if in a ceremony and then she pushed the button, the white light splayed across the floor as it often did. A figure less than knee-high appeared and there in front of Beth was a small shelled creature looking slightly confused. Beth had got a Togepi, if I hadn't got Lucy I'd have been jealous.


	5. The Journey Begins

I'd never thought I'd heard her squeal that loudly before and I'd heard her squeal pretty loudly.

"Thank you so much!" I guess this must have been her first choice.

"It's a female Togepi and she needs naming." Her mother reminded her, it seemed as though she had experienced trainers that didn't name their Pokémon.

"Okay, names..."

"You could name it..." I was going to think of a name as I said it but the only name I could think of was my own and that was not a good name for a Togepi, I especially didn't want a little girl version of me, that was not happening.

"Topaz, I think I'll call you Topaz." Phew.

"That's a good name," I liked it but all I could think about was how Lucy would react, "should we introduce them?"

At Beth's nod I pulled out Lucy's Pokéball and released her onto the ground in front of me. She took up a fighting stance ready to attack her imaginary opponent and I called her down.

"Lucy, meet Topaz," I pointed Lucy towards the blob of a Pokémon, "she's Beth's Pokémon and we'll be travelling with her for the next... however long."

"_She's very small_," she was looking down at her, I hoped she wasn't intimidating, "_what level is she_?"

"We don't know yet," Lucy looked at me disapprovingly, "be nice, wouldn't you rather talk to her?"

"_No. I want a battle_." She hadn't got the hint.

I was a little worried that she'd beat Topaz up at that point, I looked at Beth and I could see the worry spreading across her face. Topaz waved her finger in response and suddenly a void appeared at Lucy's feet. Lucy yelped and fell asleep.

"..." I stood agape at this and silence went across the room, it was the most terrified I'd ever seen Beth's parents.

_"Pi-Pi"_ Topaz seemed to be laughing.

She waved her finger again and promptly fell asleep herself.

"Let's go find out what this is." I was happy when Beth agreed and we returned our Pokémon, leaving the two parents to consider what had just happened.

-.-

We decided not to go to school that day and sort out what was up with Topaz, we headed off to the Pokémon centre to collect Beth's Pokémon trainer starter kit.

"_Togepi the egg Pokémon, it transforms the kindness and joy of others into happiness, which it stores in its shell." _This was one thing about training that I did not like, the Pokédex's voice.

"That's so cute," she tickled Topaz on her forehead and Topaz laughed in her odd way, "you're level five and you know Growl, Charm and Metronome."

"But what about that void?" I presumed that wasn't Metronome because it didn't have any 'voidy' sounding bits in it.

"Oh, that's Metronome," she had always been smarter than me, "it makes the Pokémon use any random move, even ones it doesn't know or never learns."

"..." That sounded very frightening to me.

"Don't worry I won't use it too much, except in emergencies." I sighed with relief at that point, I did not want a sudden meteor shower thanks to Topaz getting Draco Meteor from Metronome.

"So how close are you to being ready to leave?" I was hoping to leave in a day or two at most.

"I'll be ready by tomorrow!"

-.-

With that in mind we parted off to our homes to make sure we had the correct belongings and I headed over to the airport to check on our departure. The tickets were free for new trainers because they didn't want to stop people from going on journeys just because of the mountain.

"We're ready when you are," I was surprised "we're holding back a flight until you are ready because the other passengers are 'easy to please'."

"Well Beth and me would like to leave tomorrow, probably just after noon."

"Alright then I'll be ready for it," he nodded to me as I left, "be careful out there."

"Okay..." I hadn't been expecting that at all, I didn't want to ask what made him say that and just decided to leave.

-.-

It was departure day and Beth was over at my house at seven in the morning and was too awake from excitement. I was still a little drowsy but was happy for the company for the dreaded 'goodbyes'. My parents knew I was leaving soon after Beth's birthday so it wouldn't be a shock but I was awful at lengthened farewells. It was still dull outside when I went off to wake my parents, I needed to give them time to think.

"Mum, Dad," I shook them awake, "I need to talk."

"Now?" My Dad groaned only just awake, my mother nodded.

"Yes, it's about my journey." That woke them up.

After a couple of minutes left alone to clean themselves up they wandered into the lounge where we were seated, we were playing and talking with our Pokémon absent-mindedly.

"You're going on your journey aren't you?" It wasn't really a question I wanted to answer or a question I'd expected, I hadn't thought they'd react like this.

"Yes, just after noon." Beth replied for me which I was happy for.

"Good, it will be fun for you and your Pokémon," I was shocked by this as just seconds earlier they had sounded as though they were going to murder me if I (or Beth) said yes.

"Yeah..."

"I know saying goodbye will be hard but you can say goodbye before the plane leaves," I could do that, "and don't worry we'll see you again soon enough."

"Yeah, of course."

"Now, let's make sure that you are properly equipped and then you can tell Beth's parents the news."

"I'm sure they'll be delighted." My mother added.

The next hour or so was spent checking equipment and being excited, the latter taking more time. It was amazing thinking that not long from now we'd be travelling the routes of Unova taking on the Gym circuit and frankly it was terrifying. We broke the news to Beth's parents and headed off to school to tell our friends of the news.

"Where's Jayson?" He was going to be the first I was going to tell about our journey seeing as he had a Pokémon.

"He left yesterday," A girl called Alice was talking to us whilst facing the other way, "he wanted us to tell you he left on a journey and that you'd meet again someday. It seemed like an overreaction to me."

"..." This was a huge shock and it really was weird that he didn't think to tell me.

"We're going on our journey today." Beth chirped excitedly, breaking the silence. There were mumbles of congratulations in response and some of the teachers gave us goodbye hugs.

Throughout the day we spent a lot of our time making sure everyone who should know knew and some of our relatives even gave us souvenirs of the town. I made sure to accidentally leave the large lump of metal, that was the first my grand-father had ever mined or so he told us, at my house.

-.-

We collected at the airport with our friends and family. It was a cool day and I couldn't have been happier, the wind rustled my hair and we hugged our family goodbye, it felt like it was shot in a movie. This wasn't the last they'd see of us and we promised we'd be back for Christmas so the goodbyes weren't long or difficult. The plane was small and rickety but they promised that it'd do the job and we were hurried into its small passenger compartment. Our bags were small but they had enough space for essentials so we didn't have to put them anywhere else. Beth had been given her training allowance whilst mine was still wrapped around Lucy's neck. Beth saw me shaking and held my shoulder, we both knew it would be hard to leave our families to go on our own journeys but every trainer had to go through it so we weren't alone and fear was mainly over taken by sheer happiness. After a couple of last-minute preparations we were ready to take off.

_It'll be okay._ I reassured myself.

The plane took off with a start and we waved rapidly out of the small passenger windows and our family waved back. I was on my journey, at last.


	6. Luck Rules Sometimes

It was a long plane journey, we weren't allowed are Pokémon out after Topaz used metronome and shook the plane with a Hurricane, for a random move she seemed to time it very well. After an hour plane flight we stopped off for fuel and after the Hurricane I was very slightly shaken but it gave us a chance to release our Pokémon and a chance to have our first battle.

"Do you know how to battle?" I laughed at the look she gave me after I said that.

"Of course, now are we going to battle or not?" She looked angry.

_Oops_

"Alright, let's go," I started jumping up and down getting ready for it and Lucy did the same, "you ready for this Lu?"

"_Yeah." _She almost growled as she said that, she must've been very excited.

Beth spoke to Topaz, presumably about what is going on, and then stood up. She looked as though she was straining to stand as tall as possible and look threatening; I took up my stance and waited.

"Okay Topaz, Growl." Topaz stretched herself up and started growling in as threatening a way as possible for a knee height egg, which, apparently, was actually quite threatening as Lucy backed down a little, "Now Metronome." The little creature started waving its finger and it glowed, I was worried.

"Quickly Lucy, Quick Attack." It took me a moment to realize how funny that was.

She was already speeding towards the Topaz before its finger waving stopped and she started dancing. Dark clouds rippled overhead and rain started falling towards the ground, Lucy didn't seem to notice particularly and slammed into the egg and it went flying. Reeling from the damage, the Topaz struggled to get up but it was obviously still awake. It jumped up after a second's thought and ran back to where we were standing and Beth called for another Metronome. Its finger waved but nothing seemed to happen, I took the opportunity and sent Lucy on another attack, Topaz was hit hard but still stood standing and then as Lucy jumped back towards me preparing to attack she was hit by huge wave of energy that appeared out of nothing. Beth stood agape and apparently not at the move her Togepi had just conjured up, I walked over to her followed by a damp Riolu.

"I saw that before it happened," I was confused by what she'd said, "I could see the future for a minute, I could see what would happen." Rain dripped down her face and my sight was slightly obscured by rain ding the dame to mine.

"The side effects of Future Sight..." We'd learnt about it in class and it was one of the few things I remembered, she seemed to snap out of her trance as I said this. The rain disappeared and was replaced by bright sunlight.

_I like it when weather goes with the mood._

"Yeah, what else did they say about it in that lesson?"

"..." I racked my brains until I could find some sort of memory, "...that it was only accurate for the near future because there were choices that you could change in the distant future..." I wasn't certain but it seemed to lighten her mood, I was grateful for that.

"Good, now shall we get on with the battle?"

"Alright... Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine." I wasn't very convinced by this but I went along with it.

She waited for me as I jogged back to my position.

"Lucy, are you okay?"

_"Better than ever." _I laughed.

"Okay, again Lucy, Quick Attack." She started running towards the Togepi.

I heard a muffled call from the other side and Lucy slowed dramatically as hearts started spewing from Togepi's shell and Togepi smiled.

_Charm..._

The Quick Attack still hit with force but it would take more than that to knock out the Togepi. A ball of light appeared in Lucy's palms and she brought them up to head height.

_A new move! Yeah._

This felt like a real battle now but I knew it would be over soon. She pushed her palms out into Topaz with force and there was a small explosion and Topaz was flung backwards, sliding across the dusty ground. Her eyes spiralled and Beth returned her, Lucy hopped back to me and I lifted her onto my shoulder.

"That was great!" I shouted to Beth as she walked over.

"Yeah it was," she was less enthusiastic "where's the nearest Pokémon centre?"

"I don't know, but there's a healing station on the plane."

"Nice"

-.-

It wasn't long before we were heading off from this apparently bare field that had a fuel station (for planes) nearby. Our Pokémon were nice and healthy and we were leaving for Mistralton. The world flew by below the plane as I looked out the window, there were mostly fields but you could see some trainers around usually with their teams out, we even saw a trainer by a lake once with a Wailord swimming around the lake, the Pokémon was almost as big as the body of water it was in. As we headed closer to Mistralton there were more and more people around and when we reached the airport there was hardly any space for anyone to move.

"What's happening?"

"The training world championships." Beth answered.

"..." I was in shock, I always knew where the championships were and I had completely forgotten thanks to this training.

"We can watch the first round if you want, it's free entry to round one."

"..." I was still in shock but eventually I managed to gasp, "Yes..."

The training world championships brought trainers from every region that were not gym leaders, elite four members or champions although many high level leaders and elites came to watch. This was what everyone aspired to, some aspired to it even more than becoming champion, this would be amazing. After landing we ran to the stadium, luckily we were small so we could fit through all the people and ended up near the front of the children's queue. They separated out the adults and children as they wanted to make sure that young trainers had the opportunity to watch and learn how to become stronger, many people were inside already but because there were only two of us we managed to get brilliant seats. Beside us were a group of five teenagers, they were all dressed in fashionable clothes and had sitting with them some well trained Pokémon. I released my Riolu onto my lap and told her where we were. She was incredibly excited and sat on my shoulder waiting for the tournament to begin, it was a three on three tournament but you could change which Pokémon you had for every battle, returning was allowed but only three per battle to avoid serious mismatches and also to avoid manic switching. The announcer started speaking and the whole stadium went into an odd hush.

"Welcome to the stadium our sixteen finalists." A cheer erupted from the stadium and they all walked in, some waved into the crowd and the youngest of them all, a boy I recognised as August Braxton, was jumping up and down, he had got into the news many times because he had gone through every Unova gym in under six months with a Pokémon that at the start of that six months was only level five, he was crazy.

_This is going to be great._


	7. Scary things are scary

**Author's Note: ****Internet died again yesterday and I haven't been able to get another chapter up today, I'll get them up soon but I don't have time to check them through at the minute. Don't worry though, I have some written and ready to go!**

-.-

The match-ups were called from another announcer but it wasn't until the first battle that things started getting good. The first battle was between a Kanto region trainer and a Johto one; apparently they were great friends and were horrified to meet each other in the first round. We watched intently as they released their first their Pokémon, the first from the Johto trainer was a huge Steelix, it was bigger than any other Pokémon I'd seen close up. The crowd gasped in awe at the massive Pokémon and then their attention was returned from this monster to a lowly blue thing with a spiral on its chest, it span slightly and I felt myself being pushed towards sleep but I removed my gaze and woke up. Like many others I raised my Pokédex and aimed it at the human sized blob. I couldn't hear the voice over the noise of the crowd but saw that the Pokémon was a Poliwrath.

"The Steelix will switch out I expect." Bethan shouted this at me trying to be heard.

"Really?" I shouted back at her.

I couldn't hear her reply and then the announcer called for quiet and again the stadium dulled into hushed voices, he seems to have that effect. The referee started the match and as predicted by Beth the Steelix was removed and replaced by the grass starter of Meganium.

"This looks fairer." Beth commented at the Pokémon's size and typing.

After a call from its trainer the spiral on the Poliwrath's belly started spinning again and the Meganium swayed and fell to sleep as with much of the audience (including Lucy), I luckily avoided this hypnosis.

"You okay?"

_"...ugh..." _I took this as a yes and returned my gaze to the battle

The Meganium was returned and as it blinked away the Kanto trainer's Poliwrath started drumming on its stomach. Its eyes looked as though it was in great pain but it seemed to march through and looked powered up.

"This is all going Danielle's way at the minute." One announcer commented on the match.

"Yeah, Belly Drum is going to make every one of Poliwrath's attacks super powerful." Another commentator started to shout whilst the Johto trainer picked out his next Pokémon. Silence reined over the stadium as everyone waited for the release, it was exciting and scary how the crowd could go from shouts to silence in the blink of an eye.

"Go, Mini." He released a seven-foot Hariyama and there were giggles from across the stadium at the nickname.

The two fighters stared each other down, then after a call that I could not hear as the crowd started to chatter again the Hariyama ran at blinding speed towards the Poliwrath. A loud clap could be heard around the arena and the Poliwrath flew across the stadium. For half a minute it could not move. The Hariyama took this time to prepare and started focusing all of its energy at the Poliwrath then as the Poliwrath started to move the Hariyama ran at it with its fist glowing. As the Hariyama ran towards the Poliwrath, the Poliwrath jumped up and ran at the Hariyama ready to counter. Then at the last second as the two were about to fly into each other the Poliwrath jumped out-of-the-way and grabbed the Hariyama's legs. It lifted the huge fighter above its head and spun; the Hariyama could not do anything but try to protect itself. After one final high speed spin the Poliwrath released the Hariyama high into the sky and it seemed to blink out of existence. After what seemed like forever the Hariyama was visible in the sky falling at great speed, the Poliwrath started focusing its energy at the Hariyama's landing spot. The Hariyama was about to hit the ground, the Poliwrath swung with all of its energy at the falling Hariyama and its glowing fist made contact with the Hariyama's torso. It flew with the energy of the fall and the punch into the wall. Its eyes spiralled and the referee called it as unable to battle.

"Wow that was really cool!" I was impressed as with most of the crowd.

"It's not over yet." Beth replied with both expectation and anticipation.

_This is only the first round._

Lucy then decided to wake up.

"You missed a lot you know." She looked at me with a sad expression. "But I am sure there'll be other battles that are better."

A bitter silence ran across the crowd and stared at me, then out of nowhere an explosion. That was it, it wasn't loud or large but it was big enough to cause damage. Panic flew across the people in the stadium like a disease. Police ran from every corner possible. The world was in slow motion to me and then the metal columns holding the seats up started to buckle. I could feel myself shouting as this whole side of the stadium started collapsing. Pokémon were released and returned to try and stop the fall, psychics lifted their trainers from the crowd protecting them. I returned Lucy as quickly as I could and tried desperately to protect Bethan as the whole structure collapsed. We fell into the centre and the arena collapsed onto us. I tried to focus and all I could hear was gun fire and Beth's breath in my ear. I felt blood in my eyes and mouth and they closed, my body was trapped beneath the metal structures that held the building together before. I tried to raise myself from the metal but all I did was cause myself more injury as the shattered glass and metal cut into my body.

_This is it._

I prayed for Beth, I prayed for Lucy and I prayed desperately for nothing like this to happen to anyone else again. I could only hear Beth's breath slightly now and it worried me to the point of tears. I never cried for pain, at movies or books or even my Grandma's death but even the slight thought that this would kill Beth brought me to tears. Blood was still streaming down my face, I clenched my hands to find anything that could save us. I grasped a Pokéball, Lucy's. Pushing the button I released her and she cried and shouted, begging for me to stay alive. The guns had stopped firing now and all that was left were the cries and shouts of the less hurt. Lucy started firing off Force Palms into the material near us and it was moved more and more off of us with each one. I felt the pressure getting lighter but my breathing getting harder and more struggled, I coughed and choked on the dust and rubble that I was inhaling. Lucy started pulling us out of the rubble, my open wounds grated on the sharp ground beneath me. I heard shouts heading towards us and I opened my eyes to see red. People swarmed at us and I was scared for what my injuries were but then all feeling was lost as I felt a sharp stab of pain in my arm. I left my body, my hearing faded and my eyes closed for what I thought would be the final time.


End file.
